First off, if you are part of the Make Mine Modern swap, can I just beg you to hold off on making this for yourself? It might just be headed to your house this week when mailing begins!! Secondly, I was so touched by how many people out there loved that little miniquilt and wanted a tute to make their own. I read each and every comment here on my blog and I want you to know I appreciate every one of them. Enough with the sap, on to the tutorial. If you make a bookshelf mini, I'd love to see it!!

You will need:
13 various scraps for your books **see cutting step #1**
Various scraps of white fabric or another neutral, background color
1" x 20" strip of gray, brown, or other bookshelf colored solid fabric
Selvages or textual fabrics for book titles
Steam-a-Seam 2
Fat quarter for the background
Binding of your choice

Cutting Instructions:
1. From your various book fabrics, use the list below to cut your books. Feel free to adjust these guidelines as necessary, to best suit the fabric you're using.

Book #1 - 2" x 10"

Book #2 - 1" x 12"

Book #3 - 2" x 6.5"

Book #4 - 1.25" x 9"

Book #5 - 1.5" x 11"

Book #6 - 1.5" x 9.5"

Book #7 - 2.5" x 8.25"

Book #8 - 1.5" x 9.5"

Book #9 - 1" x 10"

Book #10 - 2" x 11"

Book #11 - 1.75" x 12"

Book #12 - 2" x 12"

Book #13 - Up to you! This is your leaning book, and should be at least 18" long or longer, depending on how much of a lean you're going to create for your last book.

2. From your background fabric, cut:

1 - 2" x 20" - This piece will sit under the "bookshelf"

1 - 1.5" x 15" - This piece will be used for sashing on the left side of the books

1 - 2" x 3" - This piece will sit on top of your leaning book

1 - 6" x 15" - This piece will be the right side of your leaning book

1 - 4" x 12" - This piece will be to the left of your leaning book

1 - 10" x 2" - This piece will sit at the bottom of your leaning book

1 - 10" x ??" - Use scraps here, if you've got them. We will use these pieces to make the negative space above the books.

3. From your binding fabric, cut 2.5" strips to yield 98" of binding. If you are cutting WOF, this is a total of two 2.5" strips.

4. From your bookshelf fabric, cut a strip, 1"x24".

Sewing Instructions:
1. Lay out your various 10" long pieces of background fabric. Pin each of your book fabrics, 1/4"-1/2" apart, right sides together, raw edges aligned. It should look something like this.

Sew a 1/4" seam down the length, and press seams open. Then trim your pieces to match the width of your book. Trim each book plus background strip to a uniform 15" tall.

2. Pair the books together and set your leaning book (#13) off to the side for now. Sew Book #1 to Book #2, right sides together, raw edges aligned, then Book #3 and Book #4, and so on until you have sewn all of the books in pairs. Press seams open.

3. Continue to seam the book pairs together, right sides together, raw edges aligned until all of your books are together in one solid piece. Press all seams open. Set aside.

4. Add your 2" square of background fabric to the top of your leaning book (#13), right sides together, raw edges aligned. Sew using a 1/4" seam. Press seams open. Next add the 4" x12" piece to the left side of your leaning book, right sides together, raw edges aligned. Sew using a 1/4" seam, and press seams open. Do the same with the 6" x 15" piece of background, adding it to the right side of the leaning book. Finally, add the 2" x 10" sashing to the bottom of your leaning book. It should now be sashed around all four sides.

5. Next, it's time to line up your leaning book. First, lay your bookshelf so far on your cutting mat, then lay your leaning book beside it, as you see below.

Try to line up the leaning book so that the bottom left corner of the book matches the bottom of the other books. Then, measure 1/4" inch from where you've decided to place your leaning book, take a deep breath, and cut.

Seam leaning book and bookshelf together using a 1/4" seam, right sides together, raw edges aligned. Press seams open and your shelf should be starting to look complete.

6. Trim leaning bookshelf to match the other books. For the right side of the leaning book, line your ruler up with the right edge of the bottom of the leaning book, and measure 1.5" inches to the right (even though the picture seems to indicate otherwise!). This is where you will make your cut.

Also trim the top of the books to a uniform 15" tall.

7. Add a strip of 1.5" x 15" strip of sashing to the left side of the books, matching right sides together and seaming with a 1/4" seam. Press seam open.

8. Take your 1" x 20" strip of bookshelf material and seam to the bottom of the books, right sides together, raw edges aligned, using a 1/4" seam. Press seam open.

9. Next, seam your 2" x 20" strip of white/background fabric and seam to the bottom of the bookshelf, right sides together, raw edges aligned, using a 1/4" seam. Press seam open. You have now completed the top of your miniquilt!

10. And now for the book titles. Take your selvages and/or textual fabrics and trim as desired - but leave approximately 1/4" excess fabric all the way around. Cut a piece of your double-sided fusible web (Steam-a-Seam or similar) to match, and peel off one side of the web. Add your fabric here.

Use the tip of your hot iron to get your book title to stay put, then go back to your cutting mat and trim your web more precisely to match the fabric (which will still be slightly too big). Use your iron to press your webbing in place well, then trim your book title down as desired.

To add title to a book, peel the backing of the web off, place the title where you'd like it, and iron it on. Ta da! Make sure your iron is nice and hot for this step.

11. Baste miniquilt, batting, and backing together. I used spray baste, which is super wonderful and makes the quilting so much faster!

12. Quilt to your heart's content, as desired. I recommend sewing down the edges of the book titles you have added, for extra security and because it looks nice. It's entirely optional.

13. Bind, and enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, I know I enjoyed making another one of these miniquilts. If you make one, I'd love to see it :)

I'm linking up today with {Sew} Modern Monday. Make sure to go see what everyone else is finishing up today, I always finds ton of inspiration over there! I'll also be linking up with QuiltStory's Fabric Tuesday, which is another place to see tons of eye candy!

93 comments:

I can't tell you how much this makes me want to stay up until 3am making one of these! :) Thanks for sharing your tutorial. I would have made myself crazy trying to piece selvedges in there... ok I might still try it but your way looks amazing (and probably much more accurate than mine would have been!) :) Great work!

I'll wait... but if your bookshelf arrives at my house, I'm seriously going to pee myself with excitement! :P Your tutorial looks great. If I'm not making one for myself, I definitely have a friend in mind to make one for.

I've just found you via One Pretty Thing and I have to tell you how much I LOVE this miniquilt! I love books and this is a really good idea and beautiful work too! Congratulations and thank you for sharing! Greetings from Hungary: Agnes * bakarasz.blogspot.com *

This is just the sweetest little quilt, I love it! I have a few projects to finish, but I'd like to try it. My mother, who got me into quilting, is a librarian, and I'd love to make it for her! I am still very new to quilting, so I haven't made her anything yet, but this would be just perfect! Maybe for Mother's Day???

I just found your blog and tutorial today-I love it and will make one for myself. I'm a big reader, a volunteer in a small library, and of course I have many quilting books.BTW, my daughter is Elizabeth and is called Libby, which she has always loved. My niece was called Betsy, switched to Liz at a young age, now wants to be called Elizabeth--a beautiful name.

It's me again. You might like to send a photo of your quilt to Karen Griska of selvageblog.blogspot. She is the author of a book on quilting with selvages. She often posts photos of quilts made with selvages, and your quilt is a novel way of using them. Wait till you see some of the things made with selvages!

This is AWESOME! Two of my favorite things combines together! It looks tough but I want to try it!!! Love the book fabric on the back as well...do you have a link for that? I love the name selvages for book titles! This is just incredible...did I say that already...sorry I am just sooooo impressed and am in love with it! gotta do it!! Thank you for the tutorial!!

Oh, this is adorable! I'm not much of a quilter because I'm too impatient and sew too slowly, but this looks easy and fast enough that I could do it. And it would be SO cute to hang in the library where my mom is a librarian. Thanks for the great tutorial!

I'm making one of these, but I have my favorite authors signing the book ends. So far, each one I've contacted have been thrilled to sign it for me. Makes the project take longer, but it'll be worth it in the end! Just another idea.

This is such a great tutorial and pattern! Thanks for taking the time to write it all out and post it! I'm making one for my daughter's room and wondering what size you cut book # 13 (the leaning book). I just see measurements for # 1-12. I'm sure I can figure it out, but thought I'd ask just in case. Or, maybe its in the directions somewhere and I can't find it :)

That looks awesome! I am a quilter and will soon be training to be a librarian, what I perfect way to bring my too loves together!! I'll have to make one one day (after I've made the quilts I'm working on...)

Oooh la la! Love this too much! As a busy momma of 4 who also tries to fit in as much quilting as possible between her current Librarian courses at university... I MUST HAVE THIS!!! I see a little book sewing in my future, and not the paper kind at all! Super excited to dig through my selvages to find just the right titles! Thank you for the great and detailed tutorial! I think I can do this!!! Thank you!

It appears #13 is 2"x12", same size as book #12. I dunno how I feel about having 13 books though, so I'm just going to use number 12 as the "leaner" and I guess I'll have a nice scrap of the fat quarter I bought. It is lovely.

I love this quilt! I am going through my scraps now to make one for my mother, an elementary school librarian. :) Do you remember the name or designer of the fabric you used for the backing? It's perfect!

Love this tutorial!! I made a version of this for a very special recipient (my sis) and can't wait until she receives it! Here's my bookshelf - http://www.flickr.com/photos/27153465@N07/6941300710/in/photostream

Your creation is fantastic. I have several book lovers in my house who would appreciate receiving a bookshelf miniquilt. Thank you for your hard work in making this tutorial. As you can tell, this tutorial will live for years and years as more book lovers find it.

Can't wait to make this. My daughter is a 1st & 2nd grade teacher, and loves books. This will make such a great x-mas present. We now only exchange gifts that are home made. GREAT IDEA. Thank you for your tutorial!!!!

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